Ronald Reagan: The 40th President of the United States

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Leading up to America’s 250th birthday this Summer, we are revealing things you may not know about our presidents.

We’re featuring a two-term president who started as a Democrat, but officially became a Republican in the 1960’s.

He made history in 1981 when he appointed Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to the US Supreme Court.

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois. His father nicknamed him “Dutch” because he said he resembled “a fat little Dutchman”.

Reagan attended Eureka College in Illinois and played football, ran track, was captain of the swim team, and served as student council president, graduating in 1932.

He got a job as a sports announcer in Iowa, and in 1937, while covering the Chicago Cubs’ spring training in Southern California, he did a screen test and signed an acting contract with Warner Brothers. Reagan appeared in more than 50 movies in his career. His most famous role was playing a dying Notre Dame football player named George Gipp in “Knute Rockne All-American,” where he uttered the famous line, “Win just one for the Gipper.”

In 1940, he married actress Jane Wyman. The couple had two children. They divorced in 1948, and Reagan married another actress, Nancy Davis. They also had two children.

He was the two-term governor of California who made two failed attempts to get the presidential nomination in 1968 & 1976.

But the 69-year-old Reagan would be the Republicans’ choice in 1980. He defeated Jimmy Carter to become the 40th President of the United States.

Two months after his inauguration in 1981, he survived an assassination attempt outside the Washington Hilton hotel. John Hinckley Jr. shot Reagan, piercing one of his lungs, just missing his heart. At the hospital, he said to Nancy. “Honey, I forgot to duck.”

His domestic policy, known as “Reaganomics,” cut taxes and increased military spending.

He dubbed the Soviet Union the “Evil Empire”, but built a relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev. He dared Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall separating East and West Berlin. The wall fell in 1989, and a segment of the wall stands in Rapid City’s Memorial Park.

Reagan would win re-election in 1984, taking 49 of the 50 states to defeat Walter Mondale.

He would serve his second term and retire to California. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 1994.

He died 10 years later in 2004. Ronald Reagan was 93 years old.

The day after his inauguration in 1981, the American hostages were released from Iran after 444 days.

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